So, suprise, surprise, Oakland County Executive
L. Brooks Patterson has sabotaged getting a millage on the ballot for the RTA. He says he would support something with the 24 communities in the country that opt-in to SMART...but of course the legislature would have to change the law to do this. And the whole point of the RTA was to correct the opt-in/opt-out dysfunction of SMART. I'd be willing to let the other communities go if it meant cutting Patterson out, but I don't even trust he'd stay out of negotiations even with just the more urban communities. Honestly, he needs to go, already. Hackel in Macomb County also doesn't see transit as important for the region. Dude was talking about pot-holes being his most important "transit" issue, which is an obvious red herring since that's a seperate program of services than mass transit and is being addressed with the new road funding.
Meanwhile, DDOT and SMART have been making progress despite all of this, DDOT continuing to add back service and SMART with its new three new high(er)-frequency/fewer stop FAST service.
I'm hearing a lot of "We'll just go with a Washtenaw-Wayne transit district, then." and this may be the only way. But that ultimately can't work. What's maddening is that the kind of legislative manuevers this would take to amend the RTA legislation almost certainly means we won't get a vote this year. But, prove me wrong.